Father Dabney put his finger on the crucial issue for the South (and for any people): There must be religious unity for a people to survive and flourish. He writes:

In what I found to be a fluid disposition, Rebecca Dillingham makes the argument, and I would agree on principle, that the South has been crippled by our denominational diversity. Although I do not agree with her conclusion that Orthodoxy is the cure, myself being more in favor of a blend of Southern Presbyterian theology and Anglican liturgy (I attend such a church); I absolutely agree that stability in the churches of the South must be addressed.

In saying this, however, he also reveals one of the main reasons why there isn’t religious unity in Dixie, although we don’t think he meant to: Folks treating religion as a DIY project. That’s what his solution for the religion question for the South boils down to, a preference for a new combination of recent arrivals in Christian history – “a blend of Southern Presbyterian theology and Anglican liturgy.”

One may discern immediately that something is amiss with this formulation according to the principle of “lex orandi, lex credendi,” which translates roughly to “The law of worship is the law of belief” (see p. 19 of this essay). There is a contradiction in blending Presbyterian theology with Anglican worship forms, as theology and worship form an integrated whole. Presbyterian forms of worship and Presbyterian theology cannot be separated, cannot be spliced together with other Protestant, Catholic, etc., theologies and forms of worship. They are mutually exclusive of one another. Such experimental religious combinations will not fare any better than the genetic splicing together of different plant and animal species that scientists have been madly going about lately.

New-fangled denominational mishmashes will not be able to withstand the attacks of the enemy over the long haul. What is needed is to find the Church that Christ established (not the one that man concocted), the one He promised that the “gates of hell shall not prevail against” (St Matthew’s Gospel 16:18). A central question we may ask, therefore, is – which Church received its form of worship from God Himself, and still uses that same order of worship? This can only be said of the Divine Liturgy of the Orthodox Church. The priest Fr George Mastrantonis says concerning this:

The Divine Liturgy is considered the most significant ancient Christian service, not so much for its phrasing and words as for its meaning. In fact, the Divine Liturgy was in practice right after the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Disciples of Christ on the 50th day after His Resurrection, as the sacred writer of the Acts of the Apostles records (Acts 2:46 ff)… The Divine Liturgy as such was the center of the inspiration of the first Christians in their communion with God and with one another.

In upper rooms and catacombs the Apostles and later the Presbyters and Bishops of the primitive Christian Church offered the Divine Liturgy for its sacred Mysteries. It seems that relics and reminiscences of that time were preserved in the Divine Liturgies of the 2nd century and especially of the 4th century when the Liturgies took their final form. But whatever were the various forms of the Divine Liturgy of the primitive Church, as well as of the Church of the final formation of the Divine Liturgy, the meaning given to it by both the celebrants and the communicants was one and the same; that is, the belief of the awesome change of the sacred Species of the Bread and Wine into the precious Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, the Lord.

The three most well-known versions of the Orthodox Divine Liturgy, with their ancient, apostolic lineages, are listed and described by Fr George:

St. Basil’s Liturgy is attested to not only by the Penthecte Synod (692 A.D.) but also by his friend Gregory of Nazianzos, who in his Funeral Oration said that Basil wrote “provisions of prayers, decencies of the Altar;” also by Leontios the Byzantios who put the Prayer of Oblation of Basil together with that of the Apostles; thirdly by the letter of the Monks of Skythia to the African Bishops (520 A.D.) reporting that almost the entire East repeated the Liturgy of St. Basil. Those are a few documents, among many others, establishing St. Basil’s Liturgy as a genuine work. St. Basil’s Liturgy is celebrated about 10 times a year, including the Sundays of Lent.

The Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is very ancient, “known to the Church before the initiators Basil and Chrysostom” as Patriarch Michael (12th century) infers. It is ascribed rather to Apostle James or Peter. The information that Pope Gregory, the Dialogos, wrote this Liturgy is untrue for many reasons, among them that he did not know the Greek language. As for the use of this Liturgy the 52nd canon of the 6th Ecumenical Synod refers to it, decreeing that “in all the fasting days of Lent, save Saturday, Sunday and the day of Annunciation, the sacred celebration of the Presanctified Gifts should take place.” This Liturgy is celebrated in connection with the vesper service during the evenings. It keeps its venerable character even now whein it is officiated during the mornings. It is called that of the Presanctified Gifts because the Sacred Gifts have been sanctified previously in the Liturgy of St. Basil or St. Chrysostom. This Liturgy is not officiated for the awesome change of the Gifts, but rather for the partaking of the Presanctified Gifts by the faithful Christians.

St. Chrysostom’s Liturgy is well known and very common in the Eastern Orthodox Church. It may be celebrated every day of the year except the ones of St. Basil and those of the Presanctified Gifts, and on Good Friday. It is shorter than that of St. Basil and much reduced compared to St. James’. St. Chrysostom’s Liturgy put an end to the free prayers and hymns in the officiation of the Holy Eucharist. This Liturgy placed a seal on the free forms of the re-enactment of the Mystic Supper of the Lord, depicting it in its finest form with a destiny of enduring far into the future. Despite the addition of hymns at later times, the St. Chrysostom Liturgy remains the same majestic religious masterpiece with grandeur and dramatic appeal matching the human expression and the divine act. St. Chrysostom (345-407A.D.) was an eloquent preacher, writer and one of the Fathers of the Orthodox Church, whose writings have been translated into many languages and have nourished the Christian Church throughout the centuries.

Fr George makes the unforced error of calling her the “Eastern Orthodox Church,” but this obscures the fact that the Orthodox Church is universal, for all peoples, and that she was in fact the original Church of the lands of the West. There is a wonderful hymn dedicated to all Orthodox saints of the West that illustrates this truth. Here is a part of it (Ikos 4):

With joy ye shed your blood for Christ, O venerable martyrs, and to Him ye offered yourselves as a well-received sacrifice. And the peoples of the West, seeing your unspeakable patience, understood that the God of Glory Himself dwelt within you, and marvelling at such a thing, with faith began singing to you thus:

Rejoice, Tatiana and Anastasia, together with Sophia and her three daughters!

Rejoice, Cecilia and Agnes, who showed yourselves women unequalled in courage!

Rejoice, Laurence, archdeacon, together with Sebastian, the glorious martyr of Christ!

Rejoice, good victors, for through your unspeakable passions ye hallowed pagan Rome!

Rejoice, all ye who filled all the lands of the West with your struggles!

Rejoice, Agatha and Lucy, praised martyrs, for in Italy ye fought the good fight!

Rejoice, Valentine and Januarius, enlightened bishops, for ye sealed your teaching with blood!

Rejoice, Cyprian, hierarch, together with Perpetua and Felicity and all those that laid down their lives for Christ in the African lands!

Rejoice, Maurice, wonderful martyr, for in the Swiss lands alongside thy soldiers thou didst fearlessly stand up in the face of death!

Rejoice, Vincent, deacon, for thou didst hallow Spain through thine unimaginable torments!

Rejoice, Alban, valiant warrior, for thou didst offer thyself as the first pure sacrifice of Britain to the true God!

Rejoice, Ursula, bride of Christ, who with thy blood washed the German lands!

Rejoice, all ye Saints, that in the lands of the West confessed the true faith!

Fr Andrew Phillips of England also has numerous writings relating to Orthodoxy in the West, and there is now the Ludwell Orthodox Fellowship for the specifically Southern expression of the Orthodox Faith.

Later additions to the Orthodox Church’s Divine Liturgy also have heavenly origins. For example:

During the reign of Emperor Theodsios II (402-450) the city of Constantinople was shaken by earthquakes for nearly four months. At that time several churches, houses, and the city’s stone walls collapsed and were destroyed. All the inhabitants of the city were terrified. Patriarch Proclus (November 20) organized a barefoot Cross Procession and solemnly prayed for God to protect them. While this was taking place, the tremors increased dramatically, and a young boy in the crowd was lifted up into Heaven by some invisible power, and the people, cried out, “Lord, have mercy.”

After returning to earth, the boy told the people that he had heard the Angels glorifying God by singing “Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us,” and that a voice had commanded him to tell Patriarch Proclus that henceforth the people should supplicate God in this way, without adding anything to it. The Patriarch instructed the people to sing this hymn, whereupon the ground stopped shaking and the child reposed.

From that time the hymn was inserted into the Divine Liturgy, just as it was sung by the people during the earthquake, and as it is still sung up to the present day.

But we do not want to belabor the reader. If he wishes to explore further on these points, we pray that the Lord Jesus Christ would guide him.

We also thank again Father Dabney for raising this most important of subjects. There never was a people who survived without being dedicated to a divine order of some sort – whether Jews, Christians, Muslims, Hindus, etc. Uniting the South in the Christian Faith is therefore the highest priority. May the All-Holy Trinity have mercy on us and help us to achieve this unity (Ephesians 4:1-6)!

-By Walt Garlington

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